EP 26: Tom McCabe presents, “Tom ‘Bullets’ Cahill: A Reappraisal of a Founding Father of American Soccer”

On Friday, June 7, 2024, Tom McCabe presented a SASH Session titled, “Tom ‘Bullets’ Cahill: A Reappraisal of a Founding Father of American Soccer.”

There is quite a bit of mythology surrounding Thomas W. Cahill. The driving force behind the formation of the United States Soccer Football Association (now U.S. Soccer) in 1913, and the manager of the USA’s first official international matches in 1916, Cahill was called “The Father of Soccer in the United States” by 1920.

His scrapbooks at Southern Illinois University’s Lovejoy Library attest to that role, but they also appear to have left out an important life event. Tom “Bullets” Cahill almost died from gunshot wounds in 1900, a previously unknown fact. It’s as if it had been erased from history. While bedridden in a St. Louis hospital, Cahill reflected on the direction of his life: he had lost his job, his marriage was in shambles, and he had just been saved by a tricky operation. Within a few years, he turned his life around and was on his way to becoming a key figure in the American soccerscape. A better understanding of that pivotal moment at the turn of a new century can lead to a reappraisal of Cahill’s role as a founding father, and for that matter, a more complex and complete understanding of early American soccer.

Tom McCabe teaches at Notre Dame’s London Global Gateway, but has also taught at Rutgers University and St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, New Jersey. He is working on a history of the American Football Association and has also produced two documentaries. He is past president of the Society for American Soccer History.

Podcast produced by Brian Quarstad.

Music created by LiteSaturation and found at Pixabay.

View the video of the session at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFEN30S9SKA